BERBERIS 249 



Native of China and Corea, and if not indigenous to Japan, cultivated 

 there. It is said to have been first found near Pekin during Lord Macartney's 

 mission to China, and to have been introduced in 1800. It is one of the most 

 attractive and graceful of deciduous barberries, flowering with remarkable 

 profusion towards the end of May. The Berberis figured in the Botanical 

 Magazine, !. 6573, under this name, is not true B. smensis, but probably a 

 hybrid between it and some other barberry. 



B. STAPFIANA, C. K. Schneider. 



A deciduous or partially evergreen, glabrous shrub, probably 5 or 6 ft. high, 

 of elegant habit, the stems spreading and arching ; leaf-clusters \ in. apart ; 

 spines three-pronged, very slender and needle-like, brown, \ to f in. long. 

 Leaves oblanceolate, rounded to pointed at the apex, mostly entire, but 

 sometimes toothed near the end, tapered at the base ; ^ to I in. long, ^ to ^ 

 in. wide ; scarcely stalked, of hard texture. Flowers pale yellow, globose, 

 in. wide, borne four to seven together in axillary, stalkless, or very shortly 

 stalked clusters. The stalk of the individual flower is ^ to ^ in. long. Fruit 

 oval, carmine-red with a slight bloom, in. long, containing two or three seeds. 



Native of W. China ; introduced to Kew from St Petersburg in 1896, and 

 later from Wilson's seeds. M. Maurice de Vilmorin has also grown it for 

 some years at Les Barres, in France. It is a charming shrub, of free, graceful 

 growth, allied to B. Wilsonas, but that species is distinguished by its downy 

 shoots. Another species of the same group is B. SUBCAULIALAT.% C. K. 

 Schneider, but it has globose fruits ripe in November, more distinctly angled 

 branchlets, and larger leaves ; the general aspect is otherwise very similar. 



B. STENOPHYLLA, Moore. 



An evergreen bush, 8 to 10 ft. high, and as much through, consisting of a 

 dense thicket of slender, interlacing stems arching towards the ends. Leaves 

 numerous, in tufts about \ in. apart on the shoots ; hard, spine-tipped, I in. or so 

 in length, \ to in. wide, with incurved margins ; deep green above, glaucous 

 beneath. Flowers produced either in small fascicles or on short, few-flowered 

 racemes, golden yellow, small, but very profusely borne. Berries globose, 

 \ in. across, covered with blue-white bloom. 



A hybrid which appeared in the nursery of Messrs Fisher & Holmes of 

 Handsworth, near Sheffield, about 1860, its parents being B. Darwinii and 

 B. empetrifolia. It is undoubtedly the most beautiful and useful of all the 

 barberries, and to the flower beauty of B. Darwinii has united the greater 

 hardiness of B. empetrifolia. The combination, moreover, has produced a 

 grace of habit neither of the parents possesses. The bush forms an impene- 

 trable mass of branches from out of which it throws every year slender, 

 arching shoots i ft. or more long. In the following April and May these are 

 wreathed from end to end with rich golden yellow flowers. A well-grown bush 

 is one of the loveliest of all spring pictures, and is admirable in many positions ; 

 it makes a charming bush on a lawn, as a covering for a steep bank, and it 

 may be used as a hedge plant, cutting it back immediately it has flowered. It 

 is best propagated by cuttings put in very sandy soil under a bell-glass or in 

 a frame in August. It ripens good seeds, but they rarely come true, reverting 

 back more or less to one or other of the parents generally to B. Darwinii. 



B. REFLEXA is one of these seedling forms sent out by Mr T. Smith of 

 Newry. It is a dwarf shrub, with low spreading branches and very dense 

 leafage, the leaves being dark green, | in. long, glaucous beneath ; the margins 

 reflexed and armed with three or five large teeth: "B. Darwinii nana" is' 

 another of similar origin. 



